Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 14th Birthday, Joshua!
Our friend got to have a sunny and warm day for his birthday and party – though it was still around freezing this morning. That’s why our Tai Chi was indoors with Mom and Dad for Naomi and me – and on their own for Ehlana and Aiden at his house. We all had hot breakfasts; getting ready for church was easier without bathroom-sharing issues; and Ehlana really thinks that I need to report that Naomi really appreciated not needing to share Jacuzzi time last night. No, Ehlana, I am not going to write about any details; yes, I did get a bit wet while with Naomi some of the time; and no, I did not share the Jacuzzi with her! Quit laughing, Ehlana, since you’d be blushing too if we were talking about this sort of thing for you and Aiden. Some stories just don’t need to be shared with the future, general, Magi public!
Getting back to our actual news, we had a good morning with our friends and family at church and Sunday school – including some crafting on sets for the teens’ Easter sunrise service. Ehlana and I came home with Mom and Dad for lunch and to get ready for Joshua’s birthday party; and then we met up with Naomi and Aiden and biked over to Joshua’s house. We don’t write about our friends’ families very often – even for our four best friends, but we should do more of that; and that’s especially-true when we have connections that won’t be obvious to future Magi unless they know all of us. For Joshua, Aiden has a cousin connection because his Mom and Joshua’s father are cousins – plus Scott works at the bakery with his parents. Ehlana and I have a link to Joshua’s mother because Ashley works at the lab. We don’t see her all that often because she works in the office with Aunt Grace and Violet instead of as one of the lab techs, but her work is important too – especially now that she’s moved up from reception and clerk work to being Aunt Grace’s personal assistant. Joshua’s younger brother, Lee, is closer to Hailey than to Aiden, and hangs out at the bakery more than Joshua does, but then Joshua doesn’t want to help out there at all and prefers taking on part-time jobs with Miles – like mowing lawns or gopher work for Carter construction.
Joshua’s party started with a social hour; outdoor play included tossing footballs and Frisbees; and we mostly just hung out together and enjoyed the weather in the back yard. The birthday dinner was grilled burgers and jumbo hotdogs with various cold and hot sides; Joshua opened gifts before dessert and along with the rest of the usual birthday entertainment; he got roasted by Miles and some of the other guys; and then we wrapped up the party fairly-early due to the school night factor after an hour or so of post-dinner video gaming for the guys while the girls mostly listened to music and gossiped. Yes, Ehlana, Jennifer did not leave with the rest of us, but we also know that she was not staying for a co-ed sleepover! Our parents are still among the exception for that sort of thing with their kids, but then most parents don’t need to deal with much more serious control issues with their kids. If they did; they’d likely have a different opinion on their kids’ ability to control themselves during their teen years!
While we were at the party, Mom and Dad worked in the office; we don’t need to write about how they stayed happy while doing that work; and then they decided to go to the late buffet at the Inn instead of cooking while kid-free anyway. That’s why we all got home at near the same time. Ehlana and I took Silkie for a walk while also seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes. The party was an official date opportunity; so goodnight hugs and kisses were involved in the goodbyes; and then we came home again. Mom didn’t want to do a Magi lesson tonight; they had their work done; and we all headed up to our rooms. Ehlana and I split up for bath or Jacuzzi time; and now we’ve been working on the usual computer checks while discussing the party stories and drama. There wasn’t really much drama, but some of the guys had some annoying moments; and some of the girls didn’t appreciate the attention from Joshua’s brother and his friends. They were definitely inappropriately-interested in the older girls at the party; and also tried to goad the older boys on into food games and pranks that we should all be past finding funny or entertaining.
Okay, that isn’t true according to every bad college frat movie ever made, but why let facts get in the way of the hopes of most teen girls in the world that boys around their ages would grow up sooner instead of later!
Our bedtime computing hasn’t involved much that we’d consider good news. There is going to be a meeting between Ukraine and the U.S. in Saudi Arabia to talk peace, but the rhetoric from Europe suggests that the meetings will just be more political theatre. We can hope to be proved wrong, but it is pretty clear that Ukraine and most of their western allies have expectations for a settlement that Russia will never agree with; and the current, most-likely outcomes will be a total Ukraine defeat or a major war escalation that nobody with even a bit of sense should want when we’d all lose – especially if that escalation went nuclear. The horrors in Syria are getting even worse and the rest of the Middle East remains on the brink with tensions very high. The Palestinians continue to suffer and die; and the ‘solutions’ being discussed do nothing to actually help them. We can’t even explain how our leaders are propping up terrorists in Syria that are busy killing off all of their enemies – meaning most non-Muslims – while we’re also supporting the genocide and forced-migration of the Palestinians who are also majority Muslim.
We could also rant for a while about government economic idiocies in our country and elsewhere, but that might take all night; since while our leaders are fighting over government waste, fraud, and spending cuts to save us before debt destroys us; the opposite is happening elsewhere with politicians promoting government spending sprees that will just help the world economy to speed up before driving off the financial cliff! Here’s a suggestion for all of the leaders of the countries of the world – crack a few history books! No countries have ever debt-spent their way to prosperity! It can be a way to help rich donors get even richer while making life much-worse for normal people, but maybe that’s our cynical opinion without basis for doubting the true motivations of most politicians and other elites!
This report is getting a bit long, but we should at least include the rest of our stories from last night – not including anything related to Jacuzzis! Naomi and I had fun with Mom and Dad starting with making dinner together to enjoying the food and eventually moving on to some quiet chat time; a bit of live music fun; and a walk with Silkie. Naomi and I watched a movie after getting cleaned up and ready for our co-ed sofa sleepover, and no, Ehlana; I am not going to even add details about choices for what we were wearing. Feel free to do that for yourself and Aiden and I’ll write down whatever you tell me, but I don’t need any future Magi guys of any age thinking too much about Naomi in any way related to night-time apparel! No, I am not going to write that, Ehlana, since I know you’re not telling the truth about your co-ed sleepover being clothing-optional! We can both sense Aiden blushing right now just from what he’s sensing from you thanks to those thoughts alone; so give both of us a break.
This update is quickly devolving into the weird, and Naomi will be proud of Ehlana when she hears about this little exchange, but before we move on; Ehlana and Aiden had fun with his family too – if not as much fun as she just implied for the co-ed alone time parts of her sleepover. Hailey had Leah with her last night too for the family time, and please, Ehlana, don’t start offering jokes about future co-ed sleepovers with Hailey and her future boyfriends! Maybe you would have fun with that, but I’ll hope that our younger cousins usually do that sort of thing with their own friends and not with older siblings and cousins! Hailey, Leah, and their girlfriends also still think that most of the boys their age are gross anyway – and they have Zack and Eli leading the way for that well-deserved opinion. That is why Naomi was with me last night instead of home with her brother and his best friend! Naomi would have preferred another night here with us, but her Mom wanted some time with her instead; and I’ll hope that Zack and Eli don’t bug her too much. Zack will be moving on to stay with some cousins and grandparents for the week until his parents get home; so Naomi should be safe after we get to school tomorrow – though that is relative; since she does still have Eli to deal with every day.
Ehlana and I should get to sleep now; so let’s stop there and wrap this up. We’ve had a really good weekend; expect the last week of school ahead of our spring break will be good and not very exciting as we wrap up modules and take some tests. The weather is looking pretty good too; so there could be extra outdoor play time with our friends if the forecasts for each day prove close once we get to the reality. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted on those future stories, and while we head off to dreamland now; we hope that your ‘now’ is happy and amazing too.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
